Secular Humanism and Islamic Humanism - Is there a Common Ground?

Authors

  • Siti Hadija Mohd International Islamic University Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30829/juspi.v3i1.4025

Abstract

In the modern and post-modern world, we have loosely used the term humanism to describe many subjects and the use has been too broad for its specificity and objectivity to be precisely comprehended. In fact, at many points, it has lost positivity in light of discussion within the current century. The term humanism or humanist came from the 15th-century Italian academic world to describe the process of teaching and learning of art and literature between teachers and students. It is very interesting to find out that both the ancient Greeks-Romans and the early modern European use of the concept of humanism was very much in order to detach from the rising of scientific and empirical processes, as well as the rise of modern knowledge. Either way, the point attempted to be broken here is the fact that the early history and use of the concept of modernism had completely nothing to do with the detachment of religion or a divine influence from human life and choice. Humanism in both ancient Roman and middle-age European had little or no correlation with trying to steer clear neither from any religious influence nor from trying to be modernized with new knowledge from the scientific world. Humanity and humanism in Islam shall be limited to the recognition of human rights, effort, kindness, generosity, being productive and giving benefits to others in the society, instead of having the limitless and boundless definition, which has become meaningless.Keywords: Secular humanism, Islamic humanism, ideology.

Author Biography

Siti Hadija Mohd, International Islamic University Malaysia

Hadija is a soon-to-be PhD holder in History and Civilization from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM / UIAM). Her academic and teaching background include Islamic History, World History, Asian and Malaysian History, Islamic Studies, Fatwa Studies, Medical Sciences (Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology, Biochemistry), General Sciences and the Humanities (Geography, Social Studies, Global Perspectives). Passionate about History, Hadija is a member of the Malaysian History Society (Persatuan Sejarah Malaysia) and is working to have several of her manuscripts and work in history published.With 11 years of professional working experience, her expertise lies in developing syllabus and students' assignments, grading, researching, writing, lecturing, teaching, conducting trainings, and consulting corporate clients. She has had various exposure from her interesting combination of medical and humanity academic disciplines. In the past, Hadija had worked as a Research Assistant in two genetic laboratories. One of the projects identified the distribution of genetic inclination of Malaysians to carry the alpha thalassaemia traits. This identification was done through DNA extraction from blood samples. The other project involved the identification of Noroviral infection caused by Noroviruses among children and the elderly. Similarly, DNA extraction was regularly performed, but from stool samples instead of from blood.In more recent years, Hadija has moved forward to her ultimate passion; history. She has been more involved in tracing empirical evidences from primary sources in regards to the development and transformation of the fatwa institution in Malaysia, from the time the country was still separate Malay kingdoms. She has written several manuscripts on the early history of Islam in the pre-colonial Malay land, Islam in the region under European occupation and the politics of Islam today in Malaysia. Other than that, Hadija has also written a couple of papers on comparative religion specifically on the Christian ethics and on the Muslim and Catholic clash in Malaysia about the use the name of God (Allah) used by the Catholic church.Hadija is a firm believer that students, and everyone in general, should be encouraged and motivated to possess interdisciplinary and inter-departmental knowledge. She is passionate about writing, dialogues, academic activities and, event hosting! She has had the many honors to host and be the emcees for a few events involving several top GLCs and private agencies in Malaysia, namely; Tabung Haji, Felda Global Ventures and Sedania Innovator. She is also a familiar face in her university to emcee annual dinners, focus group discussions and colloquiums. Other than that, Hadija also enjoys participating in research or academic related competition. She was her university number 1 winner of 3-minute Thesis Competition (3MT) 2018. She represented her university at University Teknologi Petronas UTP for the national level 3MT.

References

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Published

2019-07-01

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